When the PC first stepped away from the beige box and into the world of multiple colour possibilities, the peripheral market was the slowest to take up the challenge of providing hardware that matched your tower.

Largely this was because black was chosen as the colour of choice, and all peripherals became black. So if you wanted to match your mouse/headset to your system, you had to go with black. Now, as more and more manufacturers are realising the potential of giving a wide range of colour choices, one of the biggest adopters of a multi-hued range is SteelSeries, and more specifically their Siberia headset. This comes in any number of colours. But what if you fancy something that's got a little extra bling?

Enter the Siberia Frost Blue Special Edition.

Technical Specifications

Largely the specifications of the Frost Blue follow the regular Siberia V2 pattern of large responsive drivers and a quality microphone.

One thing that has changed is that this model is one of the USB variants. It might seem a small thing but as anyone who's ever discovered the onboard sound on their motherboard has more crackle than a bowl of Rice Krispies, having a clean sound in an easily transportable package is quite a boon.

Headphones

Frequency response: 18 – 28,000 Hz

Impedance: 40 Ohm

Cable length: 3 ft.

USB Cable extension: 6.5 ft.

Microphone

Frequency response: 50 – 16,000 Hz

Pick up pattern: Uni-directional

Sensitivity: -38 dB

Active noise reduction: Up to 20dB

SteelSeries Siberia V2 Frost Blue SE Review Page: 2

Up Close

We love the look of the SteelSeries packaging and always hold it up as an example of how to design the perfect box. You know who makes it, what model it is and all the features it has, without having to sift through endless bits of advertising speak or logos for things you weren't aware existed, much less needed.

As it always is, taking photographs of white products is fraught with pitfalls. Thankfully the Frost Blue are worthy of the effort as they look great. We would almost prefer that SteelSeries went the whole hog and made the light grey elements white too, but the Frost Blue certainly have a fresh and clean look to them.

The design is a classic and, as the famous saying goes, if it isn't broken then don't fix it. The microphone is one of those simple but effective designs, able to be placed exactly where you desire it, including recessed back into the left earpiece.

Of course it would hardly be a Frost Blue Special Edition if it didn't bathe you in a nice light blue glow. We're sure that an enterprising user could cannibalise the headset for an Iron Man cosplay or arc reactor based case mod.

SteelSeries Siberia V2 Frost Blue SE Review Page: 3

Conclusion

It's no secret how much we love the SteelSeries Siberia headset.

Firstly it has always been a spectacular all-rounder. The majority of us do not have specialised peripherals and with the amount of tasks we perform on our computers it's certainly beneficial to have a headset that is as happy watching Youtube or listening to your playlist as it is ordering your team-mates around.

The second most important thing is comfort. We review a lot of headsets here at OC3D and it's fair to say that not all of them have been designed with the comfort of the user as a primary concern. Thankfully the Siberia is fantastic. The major thing you notice is the lightness. These hardly weigh a thing and, coupled to the near perfect fit upon your ears, you can wear them for hours on end without suffering from fatigue.

But all of that wouldn't bring the Siberia up past the many other variants in the SteelSeries range.

What enhances this is the perfect combination of all the elements from other models. You have the excellent sound quality coupled to the comfort. With the inclusion of a USB connection option you can be guaranteed that the clearness of the sound will be identical regardless of the quality of your sound. Although onboard sound has improved dramatically in recent times, there are still plenty of motherboards around that give a crackly experience, but with the USB soundcard built in to the Frost Blue you know that wherever you are you'll always get the same high quality audio. Perhaps even more importantly the microphone is noise cancelling, and we can report that this makes a considerable difference to how clearly you can be heard by other people, whether it's in StarCraft II or Skype.

Finally we can't help but love the looks. The blue circles in each earpiece really are blingtastic and, along with the white colour scheme, are the finishing touch that help make the Siberia V2 Frost Blue the best Siberia variant we've ever seen. In fact the only place it is let down is that all those extra bells and whistles have pushed the price up to around the £90 mark, £20 more than a standard USB pair. It is a fair chunk of extra money to pay above the regular USB Siberia's.

Unquestionably the SteelSeries Siberia V2 remains one of the best headsets on the market, and the Frost Blue Special Edition are the best of the many Siberia's that SteelSeries produce. Our only qualm is that the price puts it up against some stiff competition, but if you buy them you wont be disappointed and for that reason they are awarded our OC3D Silver Award.